Chamber and committees

The A9 in the Dunkeld area and the associated junctions are busy particularly in summer carrying the combination of strategic commercial, commuter and tourist traffic. Transport Scotland is aware that at the busiest times, which often align with periods of good weather, gaining access onto the A9 trunk road can take some time. This situation is found across the country at many locations popular with tourists.

An investigation was carried out at the A9/A822/A923 staggered junction following identification of the location through the trunk road Annual Road Safety Review. Transport Scotland is introducing a series of measures to improve safety and operation within the current physical constraints until the A9 Dualling programme significantly changes the road layout at this location. These upgrades have included traffic sign and road marking improvements, in early 2020, to enhance direction finding and to upgrade signs to current standards. We are monitoring the effects of these measures in reducing accidents.

In addition, installation of illuminated bollards to improve the visibility of the road layout in darkness and to highlight the junction to turning motorists will be carried out later this year, along with the Birnam (B867) and Dalguise junctions.

A scheme to progress resurfacing of the A9/A822/A923 junction serving both Dunkeld, Strathbraan and Inver is to take place in late Autumn/Winter of the current financial year. This will provide the road surface at this location with improved surface grip and a consistency of appearance throughout. New high performance road markings and highly reflective road studs will be installed to define turning areas. A double white line system is proposed to deter overtaking through the junction.

I have commissioned consideration of what further measures might be deployed to improve safety at the junction.

Rail accessibility is a reserved matter for the UK government and the criteria for selection for an accessibility scheme is set by the Department for Transport and assessed by them via the Access for All scheme:- Access for All: funding to improve accessibility at rail stations - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

No discussions have been held as the station does not meet the UK government’s criteria.

Transport Scotland is, however, considering four possible route options for the A9 Dualling Pass of Birnam to Tay crossing section, all of which improve access to Dunkeld and Birnam station. The project team is currently in discussions with Network Rail regarding possible improvements, including accessibility, and the team will look to work closely with stakeholders to consider these improvements in more detail once a preferred route option has been selected.

The Scottish Government remains committed to improving access at stations beyond the UK Government programme. Where possible, we look to improve accessibility as part of wider rail investments and a £2 million Scottish Government Local Rail Development Fund was relaunched in February 2019 to respond to the interest and enthusiasm shown by local organisations in looking at opportunities to tackle local transport issues including accessibility. The 2019 fund is now closed however, Tactran applied for funding and is currently undertaking appraisal work for a potential Tay Cities Park & Choose Strategy at Stirling and Bridge of Earn Strategic Park & Ride along the Perth-Montrose rail corridor.

This information is available in the Scottish Health Service Costs (often referred to as the 'Costs Book'), published annually by Public Health Scotland (previously Information Services Division). Report R820 provides details of expenditure on dental services by NHS board. Independent Dental Contractor expenditure is found in the 'Family Health Services' section of the report.

We continue to support community-led climate action in a variety of ways. We have committed £3.4 million in 2021-22 to 46 ongoing CCF (Climate Challenge Fund) projects. The developing network of climate action hubs will empower communities to identify the actions that are most appropriate to their needs, and the Climate Action Towns initiative focuses on small towns with little historical engagement on climate action.

Communities can receive advice and funding through a number of Scottish Government initiatives such as:

• Our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) provides free advice and funding, with up to £5.25 million available this financial year, to support community groups develop renewable energy projects, or their engagement in wider local energy projects.
• Spend on active travel increased to £115.5 million in 2021-22 to encourage walking, wheeling and cycling for everyday journeys .
• The Energy Savings Trust deliver a number of initiatives on our behalf that help community transport groups switch to the use of low-carbon vehicles. Details of schemes are as follows:
• Plugged-in Communities (PiC) programme : This programme aims to provide access to electric vehicles and the associated infrastructure to low-income communities in the form of shared-use electric vehicle car clubs and is available to housing associations as well as third sector organisations. Applicants are also encouraged to apply for funding through the ChargePlace Scotland programme which is also administered by Energy Savings Trust to cover the cost of charge point installation as part of their application.
• The E-bike Grant Fund : This programme supports local authorities, public sector agencies, education institutions, active travel hubs and community groups to adopt e-bikes and cargo bikes as more sustainable alternatives to car journeys through providing grants of up to £200,000.

Our new website – netzeronation.scot – launched as part of our Let’s Do Net Zero campaign, aims to help the public understand how they can play their part in tackling the global climate emergency, provide resources for community action, and become an online hub for Scotland's collective response to the climate emergency. The website also signposts to further practical and financial support available to communities.

In addition, Scotland’s Climate Week (13-19 September) will be an opportunity for organisations to join the climate conversation ahead of COP26 in November, and tools will be available to support this on the website in the coming weeks.

Supporting communities to be climate ready is a key part of our just transition to net zero and we continue to review options for future support.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the UK as this a statutory function of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The MHRA produces a weekly summary of Yellow Card reporting and includes other safety investigations carried out by the MHRA under the COVID-19 Vaccine Surveillance Strategy. On 1 July this report was updated to include new data up to 23 June 2021. The MHRA does not currently break down these data by treatment required at secondary or primary clinical care settings.

The number of suspected ADR reports received in the UK for COVID-19 vaccines up to and including 23 June were as follows:

Table 1

We have provided over £110 million through our Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) to enable communities to play their part and we will continue to support community-led climate action as a key part of our just transition to net zero.

We are building on the achievements of the CCF by developing networks of regional Community Climate Action hubs and Climate Action Towns. These initiatives will run alongside the recently launched Net Zero Nation campaign which aims to showcase and inspire climate action across Scotland, including in our communities, using COP26 as a catalyst.

Work to preserve and increase the stock of grey partridge has traditionally been led by shooting interests such as the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

GWCT lead on the PARTRIDGE project in the UK, supported by the EU via the Interreg North Sea Region programme. It show-cases how new and improved management solutions can improve biodiversity and ecosystem services at 10 demonstration sites across the region. There are two demonstration sites in Scotland at Balgonie Farm in Fife and Whitburgh Farms in East Lothian promoting land management techniques specifically to benefit grey partridge https://northsearegion.eu/partridge/ .

More widely, the protection of Scotland’s biodiversity is a key priority for the Scottish Government, and we are committed to doing more to safeguard our species and habitats. Our high level Statement of Intent on biodiversity, published in December 2020, signalled our ambitions for biodiversity in Scotland, and the development of a new post-2020 biodiversity strategy. We have committed £7 million to date to the Biodiversity Challenge Fund and recently launched a new £10 million Nature Restoration Fund to help finance projects that support nature recovery and address climate change. Action to restore biodiversity is also central to our Green Recovery from Covid-19.

The Scottish Government does not hold any trend data for grey partridge across Scotland, due to low sample size in the Breeding Bird Survey annual monitoring scheme. The UK trend shows a 64% decline over the period 1995-2018. The more recent 10-year trend (2008-2018) is lower at a 34% decline.